Your diet determines a lot about your health and wellness. It can also greatly affect your oral health. You know that moderating your intake of sugary desserts helps to save your teeth from tooth decay, but you should also be aware of healthy foods that benefit your oral health as well. These foods are easy to integrate in your daily diet, readily accessible at grocery stores, and can be included in a variety of meals as well. Here are four snacks that are great for your oral health.
Crunchy fruits
Crunchy fruits such as apples and pears are great for your teeth. Not only do they provide some sugar to alleviate your sweet tooth, but they also help you to remove food residues from your teeth. Crunchy fruits need vigorous chewing to be broken down. The action of chewing stimulates your mouth to produce more saliva, which in turn helps to wash away sugars that are left on your teeth.
Cranberries
Toss some dried cranberries into your trail mix or oatmeal to help fight tooth decay. Research suggests that polyphenols in cranberries fight cavity-causing bacteria from anchoring to your teeth. This same property may also help keep bacteria from infecting your gums as well. Sip some cranberry juice to help fight the formation of plaque. Cranberry juice helps to disrupt glucan in your mouth from forming plaque by disrupting enzymes that facilitate plaque growth.
Oranges
Orange wedges are great as a quick snack, and they also help boost your oral health. Packed with vitamin C, oranges help you to fight off gum disease. Research shows that people who do not consume enough vitamin C are more likely to exhibit symptoms of periodontitis, whereas those with a high concentration of vitamin C in their bloodstream are more likely to have good oral health. If oranges are not to your taste, you can try other citrus fruits such as grapefruits.
Yogurt
Dairy foods such as yogurt are good for your teeth. Yogurt is full of calcium and phosphorus. These minerals help to fortify your teeth. When you chew, talk, or grind your teeth, your teeth start to wear down and lose their mineral mass. Eating a diet rich in dairy helps to strengthen your teeth as well as your bones. Yogurt is also very basic and can help neutralize the pH in your mouth, making it harder for negative bacteria to thrive and create infections.
Share
